Monthly Archives: June 2015

The Petach begins with the statement that there’s a difference between “The Crystalline Dew” cited in Zohar 3, 128a — which characterizes it there as an entity “in which all colors can be seen” — and Radlah. And here’s how they’re different: while “The Crystalline Dew” presents all of the colors together, Radlah presents itself as one thing in one instance and then it immediately presents itself as its opposite.

We’ll have to refer to Ari’s references to this to understand what Ramchal is saying.

The final Petach to this section, Petach 89, serves as a segue to the next one which focuses on the Partzuf known as Erich Anpin. It contrasts a characteristic that Radlah and ErichAnpin would seem to have in common but which actually proves to be different in each, the sorts of “colors” emitted within each.

The Zohar speaks of a phenomenon known as “Talb’Bedolcha” — a crystalline dew — in the arcane section of it known as IddrahRabbah (Zohar 3, 128a).

The dew is taken from the following sequence cited there in the Zohar. The Jewish Nation was complaining to Moshe about the lack of food, so God said, “I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. (So) speak to them, saying, ‘In the afternoon you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be full with bread, and you know that I am God the Lord’.” And indeed, “It came to pass in the evening that quails went up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. The layer of dew went up, and behold, on the surface of the desert, a fine, bare (substance) as fine as frost on the ground” which referred to the manna that they ate in the desert (Exodus 16: 12-14).

And the crystalline aspect of it refers to the verse cited there that reads,” Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance was like the appearance of crystal” (Numbers 11:7).

Dew is thus a manifestation of God’s beneficence, and its crystalline character represents its multi-fadedness — of taste in the case of manna, and of color in the case of an actual crystal which reflects all colors.

Petach 88 essentially reiterates what we’d said above. It explains that Radlah is a single emanation which nonetheless contains all the aforementioned combinations of MaH and BaN. Yet it’s an emanation that’s impossible to grasp or understand. Looking at it has us perceive all sorts ofanomalies, because it doesn’t seem right for it to contain all those sorts of combinations of MaH and BaN, but that’s because it’s an emanation that’s simply impossible to fully and logically understand.

As Ramchal explains in his comments, “We (really) shouldn’t say that there are anomalies (there, which would indicate contradictions) — in fact all of the combinations exist there”.

In truth, we can’t see what’s in it: sometimes a certain combination seems to be there and at other times another one that may even be its opposite seems to be. Thus even though we know it contains all the various combinations of MaH and BaN, the emanation itself exists in a way that’s impossible to understand, since it first appears one way and then another. So at bottom we really can’t understand the rules of Divine governance on this level.

For if we were to try to follow something below this level in Atzilut then try to follow its root in Radlah, we “wouldn’t be able to find our arms and legs”, i.e., we couldn’t establish where we were standing, since we couldn’t judge anything about it. For, first it looks like this and then it looks like that, making it utterly impossible to understand. That’s in fact why Radlah is called the “Unfathomable Beginning”.

While we know this all to be true, yet no one can understand or grasp anything other than what’s revealed in the order and rules visible in the Partzufim. Nonetheless the source of the matter actually lies in the combinations of MaH and BaN found in the unfathomable Radlah which are not at all revealed or known.

As such, all of these various combinations of MaH and BaNrule the world’s circumstances all of the time, as opposed to other lights which rule at specific moments. AndGod’sgovernanceturns, i.e., it involves itself and plays a role in it all, from one thing to the other in all instances, be they identical, contradictory, or opposite — this last point alludes the apparent anomalies in Radlah referred to above.

Since God’s governance functions in every aspect of reality. In addition, the states of the Partzufim shift from one to the other in the mode of “running and returning”, i.e., skipping about and going back and forth instantly as the Chayot-angels did in the verse that reads, “And the Chayot would run and return, like sparks” (Ezekiel 1:14).

Likewise, everything is to be fixed in eternity in the great Day of Judgment in accordance with what has already been done in this world below as rooted in Radlah and as set-out in the Partzufim, regardless of whether they’re, i.e., whether those actions are, identical, contradictory, or the opposite of each other.

As despite the makeup of things and despite their relationship to each other, everything touches on the interplay of the contents of Radlah and affects the past, present and the ultimate future.

And everything in the worlds of Atzilut and below is governed in accordance with all these combinations of MaH and BaN which are rooted in Radlahas based on the actions of the lower creations.

This all speaks to the on-going, all-encompassing interactions of the lower and upper worlds from Radlah on high, to the Partzufim, to the world below and back again as based on Human and divine interaction.

As Ramchal terms it in his comments, “the (Divine) order of governance always takes everything into account. Thus every (human) act effects all of the past, all of the present and all of the future. As a result, that (human) deed will never cease to exist …. Thus … each action that people take reaches its place here (in our world) because they’re all here (in Radlah) already…. Thus, through the power of this affect caused by an action (on man’s part), the Partzufim (below), are then arranged in the way they have to in order to act in the worlds.”

Petach 87 explores the difference between how things are governed in Radlah and how they’re governed in the Partzufim.

We’re taught here first that everything that has already been done or that’s now being done in the universe is subject to these connections, i.e., to the connections between MaH and BaN [1]. For there is nothing here thatisn’t rooted there in Radlah, be it a repair or a flaw.

Footnote:

[1] In his comments to this Ramchal indicates that this touches upon the whole issue of God’s foreknowledge. See our discussion of that in Section 14.

Petach 86 is finished with the statement that it’s important to know, too, that the way these combinations govern up above in Radlahdetermines what happens in the Partzufim below, in Atzilut. It’s just that this, i.e., which combination is governing at any point, simply can’t be grasped or seen.

Yet understand that when variations in the Partzufim come about in different states of being and when certain other changes suddenly occur in them, we still and all know that they derived from Radlah, though in fact no one can see them for what they truly are.